How clean is clean?

Most commercial caterers and kitchen operators have realized that no matter
how good their daily cleaning is, there are some parts of the kitchen which are
difficult to clean or are downright inaccessible.

The build-up carbon in ovens and the accumulation of grease deposited in
ventilation system are examples, which require heavier duty cleaning than can be
carried out by the kitchen staff themselves. This is the point when a specialist
contractor is called in to dismantle many pieces of equipment and bring them,
and the fabric of the kitchen itself, back to a sparkling, "looking like new"
appearance.

Fitting in with a busy restaurant or industrial kitchen is vital and much of
this type of work has to be carried out during down-time, while ensuring that
the kitchen is ready for start-up the next day.

The work is hard, intensive and requires committed and fully trained
personnel. Not only do technician need to be skilled in cleaning techniques and
material, but also competent and trained with regard to gas installing standards
if dismantling and re-installing gas equipment shall be required.

The goal for both the kitchen operator and the cleaning contractor is not
only a visible and better-looking kitchen, but also confidence in visible
cleanliness, which involves the removal of potentially illness-causing bacterial
contamination.

Deep cleaning of kitchen has been undertaken for many, many years but until
very recently the monitoring of the "invisible cleanliness" has been assumed or
attempted to be checked by swabs and sampling incubation over three or so days;
not that useful when the kitchen probably started operating immediately after
the clean finished, while waiting for the results. Now Rentokil Hygiene Division
has combined its expertise to deep cleaning kitchen with the latest rapid-result
testing for showing the level of contamination on any surface, in their new
service, Cater-Clean.

The programme involves the technician taking swabs of various items of
equipment and surface prior to cleaning carried out. Rentokil Hygiene Division
has been working in collaboration with Biotrace and is working using the
Biotrace single shot swab, which is tested immediately with shot swab, which is
tested immediately with the company's Uni-lite system. A print-out of the result
is produced instantaneously.

The principle behind rapid-result monitoring of this type is adenosine
triphosphate (ATP) luminometry. The swab is immediately mixed with reagents in a
one-use container and the measurement of activity is given by the detection of
light generated by the ATP. The test is technically classed as
non-microbiological, as all cells, not just microbial, produce ATP and the
result shows whatever contamination there is of the surface, i.e. bacteria and
food debris

What this does mean is that a " before and after" swab test can inclusively
show how well the deep clean has been carried out. The results are printed out
and kept by the customer in his Cater-Clean system manual, along with a dated
certificate confirming the operation, the result for any particular piece of
equipment or surface can also be used by the customer to monitor hot spots of
activity or trends. This knowledge can also be used in preventive management
techniques such as changing daily cleaning methods or even moving specific food
preparation areas.

The recent changes in food hygiene legislation and recommended good practices
mean that companies operating kitchens for staff or public need to show they
meet the requirements. The Scottish E. coli 0157 incident and the subsequent
Pinnington report highlighted the need for diligence in commercial food
preparations. Combining a professional, deep-cleaning operation with tangible
results of this will help those involved in running catering operation to
satisfy themselves, their customers, and enforcement authorities that reach the
standards set.